You Wear It Well
by Death's Daughter
Summary: Spoilersish for 'School Reunion'. 10SarahJane. The Doctor spends the night at SarahJane's while the TARDIS is stuck in the school. Rod Stewart makes a comeback.


Rose went to Mickey's flat, and the Doctor went with Sarah Jane.

To be honest it had surprised her. She hoped – oh she'd hoped. But she hadn't expected it. It'd been what, thirty years since he'd seen her? Being apart overnight wouldn't exactly be a strain to him.

But he came with her.

She smiled, trying to tell him with it a million and one things (_I love you, I missed you, I'm glad you're back, please don't leave_ but at the same time _why are you here, this hurts so much, why didn't you come back for me, when are you going to leave again?_)

She showed him the guest room and then, suddenly hit with a strange attack of nerves - she didn't want to know, she didn't want to see him, she was _scared_ - she claimed tiredness and retreated to her own room to lie in the dark and listen to the Doctor puttering around, investigating, trying to re-learn her from her home.

Several times she heard him come to her door and pause, as if listening, or trying to convince himself to go in.

Eventually he went into his own room and she heard the squeak of bedsprings before silence fell.

----

After a while, when for all the exhaustion that she felt bone-deep in her she still hadn't been able to sleep, she got up and went into the living room. Putting a CD on low, she disappeared into the kitchen.

When she came back carrying two painfully sweet cups of tea and a ceramic jar, the Doctor was standing at the stereo, looking at the CD case.

"Rod Steward," he said, setting it down and taking the tea off her with a smile. "Didn't know you liked him."

"We never really discussed music between the monsters, did we?" She sat, placing the jar on the coffee table and removing the lid. "Jelly baby?"

His smile grew impossibly wider and he sat beside her.

"You didn't forget," he commented.

"Sounds like you did though," she said lightly.

"Sarah…"

"I just…Couldn't you have at least visited?"

The Doctor looked down at his tea. In the background, Rod Stewart sang about how he'd "_been meaning to phone you, from Minnesota, Hell it's been a very long time,"_ and Sarah-Jane hated him a little for being appropriate and the Doctor wondered when his life began being narrated by Rod Stewart.

"I didn't want to see you grow old," he admitted. "I wanted to remember you…I'd forgotten," he said, turning to look at her with his new eyes burning with old intensity. "How beautiful you were. Are."

"I'm old," said Sarah-Jane, not wanting to hear the words she'd wished for thirty years ago. "I've spoiled your memory."

"_There ain't a lady in the land so fine,_" declared Rod.

"He's right," the Doctor said, nodding towards the CD player.

"Is this why you came with me tonight?" She demanded. "To make me want it all over again? Because you're wasting your time. I never stopped in the first place."

The Doctor put his mug on the coffee table and kissed her. He tasted of sugary tea, red jelly babies and Autumn, and Sarah-Jane's heart broke a little.

"_I ain't forgetting that you were once mine,_" said Rod, as he pulled away. I still am, thought Sarah-Jane sadly.

"Is this what you do with your assistants now?" She asked, retreating back a bit on the sofa.

"No," he licked his lips, a little stung by her drawing back. "Back then…I couldn't. I didn't know quite what it was I wanted…Besides, I looked like your father, grandfather."

"Now you're older, but look younger, and I look old enough to be _your_ mother," she said dryly. The irony was not lost on her.

"I always thought Oedipus was a nice bloke," the Doctor commented with a silly grin. "Besides…"

"_You wear it well,_" Rod finished.

"Exactly."

"You wear it better," Sarah-Jane said lightly, standing. "Of course, that's hardly a surprise."

Her tea was cold. The Doctor's was forgotten on the coffee table. She picked it up and disappeared into the kitchen, the Doctor watching her go.

"_I love you, I love you, I love you,_" Rod called after her. The Doctor grunted and grabbed a jelly baby to chew on, dissatisfied with the way it had turned out.

Sarah-Jane breathed deeply and carefully through her nose as she washed up the mugs, then dried her hands and her eyes on the teatowel.


End file.
